STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. KASIRAJA NADAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this tax revision case the point involved is whether tapioca thippi dust and the mixture of molasses with tapioca thippi dust are articles of cattle feed falling within the scope of the notification issued by the Government of Tamil Nadu under section 17 (1) of the Tamil Nadu General sales Tax Act, 1959, on 4th March, 1974. The notification, so far as it is relevant, reads as follows : "in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 17 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 (Tamil Nadu Act 1 of 1959), the Governor of Tamil Nadu hereby makes an exemption in respect of the tax payable by any dealer under the said Act on the sale of - (2) Cattle feed, namely, hay or straw or rice bran or wheat bran or husk and dust of pulses and grams, but excluding - (i) brokens of pulses and grams; (ii) oil-cakes; and (iii) cotton seeds."

(2.) THE Tribunal took the view that tapioca thippi dust and the mixture of molasses with tapioca thippi dust are items of cattle feed and are therefore covered by the notification extracted above and consequently exempt from tax. It is this conclusion of the Tribunal that is challenged by the State in the present tax revision case. THE contention of the State is that it is not every item of cattle feed that is covered by the notification and that the notification covers only the enumerated items of cattle feed mentioned therein. We are of the opinion that this contention of the State is correct. THE word "namely" has been construed by a Bench of this Court with reference to item 13 of the Fifth Schedule to the Income-tax Act, 1961, in commissioner of Income-tax, Madras-1 v. Arasan Fertilisers (P.) Ltd. In that case the point that had to be considered was whether bone-meal manufactured by the assessee-company was one of the articles or things specified in the list in the Fifth Schedule to the Income-tax Act, 1961. Item 13 of the Fifth Schedule reads as follows : "13 Fertilisers, namely, ammonium sulphate, ammonium sulphate nitrate (double salt), ammonium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate (nitrolime stone), ammonium chloride, superphosphate, urea and complex fertilisers of synthetic origin containing both nitrogen and phosphorus, such as ammonium phosphates, ammonium sulphate phosphate and ammonium nitrophosphate. "

(3.) THUS it will be seen that the statute itself uses different expressions : "namely"; " for example";" that is to say". When the statute itself uses deliberately different expressions in different contexts, it is not a rule of interpretation to hold that all these expressions mean one and the same thing. If the intention of the legislature was to give the same meaning to the different expressions, the legislature would not have used different expressions, but would have used the same expression.